Pier Mirror in the Neoclassical Taste

American, third quarter of the 19th century. Pine, gessoed and gilded, with mirror plate. Measures: 81 ½ in. high, 59 ½ in. wide. Condition: Excellent. The gilding has been cleaned and very, very slightly inglided as necessary. The ball at the upper left was missing and has been replicated based upon...

Pier mirror with Reverse Painted, or Eglomisé, Panels, about 1800 New York, New York Eastern white pine, gessoed and gilded, with compo ornament, glass, reverse painted and gilded,...

Small Settee in the neoclassical taste Boston, Massachusetts (active 1804–17), about 1810 Mahogany (secondary woods: ash) Measures: 35 1/8 in. high, 59 3/4 in. long, 19 1/8 in. deep Although the diminutive scale of this settee places it in a unique category, the piece itself partakes of a vocabulary that is common in Boston furniture of the Late Federal period. Its sabre legs, for example, as seen straight on from the left and right ends, are closely related to the legs, as seen from the front, on a group of chairs of undisputed Boston origin, including a spectacular armchair with scrolled arms (see Stuart P. Feld, Boston in the Age of Neo-Classicism, 1810–1840, exhib. cat. [New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1999], p. 37 no. 6 illus. in color), as well as a number of side chairs, including a set made for Nathan Appleton (see Page Talbott, “Boston Empire Furniture, Part I,” The Magazine Antiques, CVII [May 1975], p. 887 fig. 12). In all, the legs are ornamented with two bold, somewhat flattened reeds set between corner beads, a pattern which is repeated here on the front and end seat rails as well. The superb quality of the piece is further demonstrated in the finely drawn profile of the arms, as well as the delicately bulbous surface of the fronts of the arms and legs. As in the best of the related chairs, the sabre legs end in delicately carved paw feet. The added refinement of the beautifully carved rosettes at both the fronts and backs of the arms suggests that the piece may have been designed to be used in the round. Stylistically harmonious with these pieces is also a group of larger sofas with frontally set sabre legs and scrolled arms (see Page Talbott, “Seating Furniture in Boston, 1810–1835,” The Magazine Antiques, CXXXIX [May 1991], p. 963 pl. 11) that represent an indigenously Boston form. Although none of the furniture in this group has been effectively attributed, they can certainly be related to various Boston card tables...

New York, Fan-carved mantel in the Federal taste, circa 1812 Pine Measures: 66 1/4 in. high, 90 3/8 in. wide, 13 1/4 in. deep Within the genre of carved rather than plasterwork mantels of the Federal Period, no example that has come to light is more perfectly designed or more carefully wrought than the present one, which is an amazing symphony of fans, urns, beads, and other Neo-Classical devices, all ultimately influenced by the plasterwork designs of the English architects Robert (1728–1792) and James (1732–1794) Adam. Of a type that proliferated in the area bounded by the northern New Jersey counties of Bergen and Passaic, the Hudson Valley, and western Long Island, the mantel is representative of work that flourished in the first couple of decades of the 19th century. While most of the woodwork of this style that has survived is found in interiors, various examples of exterior doors and other trim have been noted, but most examples have disappeared as a result, variously, of natural deterioration and purposeful demolition in anticipation of development. Although considerably larger in scale and more elaborate in ornament than a mantel that has been in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum since 1944 (acc. no. 44.55; photograph in Hirschl & Adler archives), the present mantel is so close in style and conception to that example that it likely originated in the same house. The Brooklyn mantel is documented as having been removed from a house built by Judge Isaac Terhune (1762–1837), an eminent lawyer and judge. The house was situated on King’s Highway, at the corner of Mansfield Place, at the edge of South Greenfield, a village in northern Gravesend, Brooklyn. A photograph of the house, taken by the German e´migre´ photographer, Eugene Armbruster (1865–1933), is in the collection of the New-York Historical Society. Terhune is ultimately descended from the Dutch-Huguenot e´migre´ Albert Albertson Terhunen, who died in Flatlands, Brooklyn, in 1685.The family eventually spread out through New Amsterdam, Long Island, and Bergen County, New Jersey. Terhune’s great-grandson, also Albert (1715–1806), left a sizable estate to his six surviving children, including his second child and second son, Isaac. Judge Terhune lived in the house until his death in 1837, at which time, according to an article in The New York Times for November 27, 1910, he, having died without issue, “left the White Frame Mansion with its exquisitely carved doorway, beautiful mantels, and other interior adornments to his brother John” (Part Six, p. 11). The article continues: After the latter’s death, the house and its estate of about 70 acres passed through several owners, eventually being purchased in 1853 by Benjamin G. Hitchings [1813–1893]. The house next passed to Benjamin’s son, Hector, who had been born in the house, and then lived there for 25 years. He sold it in 1910 in partial payment for a Manhattan apartment house. After thus having been sold to a real estate developer, the Hitchings property was subdivided into Hitchings Homestead. The house survived until about 1928, at which time it was razed and a Deco-style apartment house with the address 2301 Kings Highway was constructed on the site and occupied in 1935. By 1910, the fate of the house, in an area of Brooklyn that was being rapidly developed, was becoming obvious. The Times article reported: The house has been well kept up, but fearing lest the hand of time or vandals might deal harshly with some of its choice bits of carving, Mr. Hitchings removed a few years ago a few beautifully carved wood mantels...

RECORDED: cf. Anna Tobin D’Ambrosio, ed., Masterpieces of American Furniture from the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute (Syracuse University Press, Utica, New York, 1999), pp. 85, 86, 87 illus. the Munson-Williams-Proctor tables // cf. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 19th Century America–Furniture and Other Decorative Arts (1970), exhib. cat., [n.p.] no.133 This table is identical to a pair of card tables bearing the stenciled label of Charles A. Baudouine of 335 Broadway, New York, which were acquired by James and Helen Munson Williams of Utica, New York, in May 1852 for their home, Fountain Elms, which is where they remain today as part of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute collection. The Williams tables were billed as “1 Rosewood Multiform Table” at $160 for the pair, and they were indeed “multiform” in that they could be used separately and folded as a pair of console tables, opened as a pair of card tables, or joined together as a center table. The present table varies essentially in the fact that it does not include the mechanism that would have allowed it to be attached to another to form a center table. Of French descent, Baudouine was born in New York in 1808. He made his debut as a cabinetmaker in the New York directory of 1829/30, where he is listed at 508 Pearl Street. By 1839/40 he relocated to Broadway, where he remained in business at various addresses until about 1854. A sense of the scale of Baudouine’s operation is given by German immigrant cabinetmaker Ernest Hagen...

French. Plateau in the Restauration taste with grape and leaf motifs, circa 1825. Ormolu and patinated bronze, with mirror plate and wood backing. Measures: 15 7/8 in. diameter, 3 11...

A pair of completely original, hand-carved and gilded, Italian, c. 1800 pier mirrors. Each featuring a spectacular crown consisting of a pierced, flower c...

A large gilded pier mirror with an architectural design. Beautiful patina and aged glass. All original condition. Italy, late 18th to early 19th century.

Wonderful two section neoclassical gold leaf gilt mirror, it retains the original mirror and gold gilt. Measuring 22 inches wide x 43 3/8 inches High x 2 3/4 inches deep, section siz...

Wonderful two section neoclassical gold leaf gilt mirror, it retains the original mirror and gold gilt. Measuring 19 1/8 inches wide x 35 3/8 inches high x 2 3/4 inches deep, Minor w...

Neoclassical carved and giltwood frame with églomisé ‘reverse hand-painted glass panels’ at the top, bottom and surrounding periphery, and having original period mirror. In beautiful...

A Fruitwood & Ebonized Parcel Gilt Neoclassical Pier Mirror Circa 1800 Height 67 in. Width 33 in. Provenance: Property of a Gentleman Boston M...